Opposition Refuses To Accept Poll Result
Equatorial Guinea's main opposition candidate has said he will not accept the result of Sunday's election because polls were not free and fair.
claimed government agents voted in place of the public and some polling stations closed early.
He is standing against President Teodor Obiang Nguema, who has been in power for 30 years.
Voting ended with reports of a low turn out. President Obiang Nguema said the day had gone well. The BBC's correspondent in the region, Caspar Leighton, said the leader of the opposition was not alone in judging the election to be flawed.
The electoral roll was not published and the country's electoral commission is run by President Obiang Nguema's interior minister.
Human rights groups said the vote was unlikely to have been free and fair and President Obiang Nguema was likely to be re-elected.
Government funds have been given to other candidates, but the governing party dominates state media.
President Obiang Nguema won the last election with 97 per cent of the vote and he told supporters he expected to do better this time.
There are some election monitors from the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States, but they have to follow a government programme.
Many foreign journalists have been refused visas to cover the election. Equatorial Guinea's vast earnings from oil and gas should give its population of 600,000 people a theoretical income of $37,000 a year each.
But most Equatorial Guineans live in poverty after 15 years of plentiful oil production.